Optical spatial solitons supported by photoisomerization nonlinearity in a polymer

We present a theory for a new type of optical spatial soliton that is based on the angle hole burning mechanism of photoisomerization in some polymers. We predict that the photoisomerization nonlinearity can support steady-state dark and bright spatial solitons in the polymer. We also discuss the dependence of the FWHM of the spatial soliton on wavelengths of the background beams and on the ratio of the intensity of the background beam to that of the signal beam.